


Fillial Affiliations

by Candyoranges



Category: Eureka (TV)
Genre: Established Relationship, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Father-Daughter Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-27
Updated: 2016-02-27
Packaged: 2018-05-23 14:51:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6119914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Candyoranges/pseuds/Candyoranges
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zoe was surprisingly excited about her upcoming class presentation. Two years ago, she’d have been appalled to think she might one day actually like school. But now she had her dad's new boyfriend helping her with homework and sharing long, scientific debates. Maybe it would be worth keeping him around and making him a part of the family. (Even if she still wanted brain bleach for the number times she'd caught them making out in the kitchen.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fillial Affiliations

Zoe was surprisingly excited about her upcoming class presentation. Two years ago, she’d have been appalled to think she might one day actually like school – at least most of the time. But Eureka made things… different. Zoe was super proud of the robot she’d created for her mechanical engineering class. No lame fruit fly experiment this time.

Of course, it helped that she’d had some assistance this time around. Zoe knew that most of her classmates got advice from their genius scientist parents when they had problems with homework or projects like this. As much as she loved her dad… that was not him. He couldn’t really offer her any help besides cheerful (and sometimes annoying) encouragement.

Then a few months ago, she’d walked in on her dad making out with Dr. Nathan Stark. (And although she still wanted brain bleach, she’d had to get used to them kissing over the coffeepot in the morning. Eww. Cute, but totally disturbing.) Anyway, Zoe had quickly deduced that Dr. Stark was surprisingly serious about her dad, and hence was clearly angling for her approval. She had no qualms about taking ruthless advantage of this to have him help her with her homework.

(Her real approval came after witnessing the sustained lack of snide comments about her dad’s intelligence and the disturbingly soft and happy looks they shot at each other sometimes when they thought she wasn’t looking.)

(It also didn’t hurt that getting laid regularly apparently made her dad a lot less strict, which, eww, not thinking about that.)

So Nathan became a regular fixture in the bunker – watching bad movies with her and her dad and rolling his eyes over his laptop while she and her dad cheered at ballgames. The homework help continued, but also melted into long scientific discussions about non-classified projects at G.D. or new breakthroughs outside of Eureka. (Her dad always got this weird glazed/proud look whenever Zoe and Nathan did this.)

Nathan’s passion for science, particularly his own field of physics and artificial intelligence, was also a little infectious. He’d been unbearably pleased and smug when she’d switched her spring schedule to include this mechanical engineering class. (Her dad had rolled his eyes, congratulated her, and then not-so-subtly dragged Nathan up to his bedroom. Eww! Brain bleach! Seriously.) 

Zoe had gotten a lot of great pointers for her current project from Nathan and he’d spent many evenings untangling wires at her direction while she soldered them in place. He’d also looked impressed at her ongoing progress and said she had a natural aptitude for robotics. (That totally did not give her warm fuzzy feelings. She was too old to need adult approval like that. It was just… nice. That’s all.)

 

Anyway, that brought her back to today. She had completed her robot and run several successful trials. She hoped to ace her project and blow her classmates out of the water. Despite Nathan’s advice and occasional assistance, she knew the ideas were 100% hers and she couldn’t be prouder. (A voice in her head that sounded like her dad said Nathan’s ego might be rubbing off on her, but that just made her smirk a little wider.)

Now she was just waiting for her dad to get here. All the parents had been invited for the project demonstrations, and it had turned into a microcosm of the giant science fair. 

Zoe’s phone rang.

Her heart sank. She knew Eureka always had crazy catastrophes threatening to destroy the whole town, and her dad always had to be the hero and save the day – but, this just reminded her of every school play, class presentation, or recital that her dad had missed when she was little because his job came first.

Reluctantly, she answered without checking the ID, and hence was surprised to hear Nathan’s voice. Suddenly, her heart was in her throat. Why wasn’t her dad the one calling?

“Calm down, Zoe. Jack’s fine. Well, more or less. Taggert accidentally shot him with one of his high-dose tranquillizer darts. He’s going to be unconscious until dinner time though. I’m really sorry, I know Jack promised that he’d be there today. Make sure to blame Taggert extensively next time you see him.”

Zoe sighed. Okay, so it wasn’t really her dad’s fault, and she wasn’t the only student who didn’t have someone to cheer her on, but darn it, it wasn’t fair.

Nathan cleared his throat nervously. 

That caught her attention since Dr. Nathan Stark PhD, PhD, PhD did not get nervous. 

“I can come over if you’d like. I know you wanted Jack there, but maybe I can be a pale substitute? I’d like to see your final product in action anyway.”

She blinked. “Wow, really? Are you sure? I mean, you and dad haven’t exactly come out to the rest of the town yet and there’s not really any reason for you to come and cheer me on otherwise.”

“Zoe, I plan to marry your dad as soon as I think he’s not going to freak out immediately at my proposal. I don’t care what the rest of the town thinks. Jack’s unconscious and doesn’t get a vote, although I don’t think he’ll mind. The question is would _you_ like me to come? I don’t want to presume.”

“Weeelll, I suppose your appearance might have the benefit of freaking out all the competition and throwing them off their game.”

Nathan laughed, “Oh, I think I can do that. I’ll be there in 10 minutes.”

 

When Nathan walked into the room 8 minutes later, it was with the spotless suit and aloof gaze he’d worn constantly when he’d still been the head of G.D. Zoe snickered as people around the room quieted and stared at him. She wondered how many of the other parents had been on the receiving end of his temper and glares and now had a Pavlovian response to his presence. All of them wary not to become his next prey.

Professor Rushford apparently did not have this instinct, however, as he actually approached him asking, “Dr. Stark, is there something I can do for you? Is there a problem of some sort?” Of course, in the suddenly hushed atmosphere, the quiet questions were audible to the whole room.

Zoe kept snickering to herself as Nathan waved him off with barely a glance and told him he was simply there as a substitute parent, as his boyfriend unfortunately couldn't make it. Then he continued walking over to her table, smug grin on his face.

Zoe saw the moment the pin dropped for people around the room. Eyes widened, jaws dropped, and teens and adults alike started whispering like middle-schoolers.

Nathan leaned close to her ear, “So do you think that sufficiently threw off your competition?” 

“Oh yeah. Now I just have to stop laughing at them long enough to blow everyone out of the water.”

“That’s my girl.” Nathan still had a wicked grin on his face as he ignored all the surrounding gossipers and helped her finish running the calibration on her robot.

 

His girl, huh? Well, he’d told Professor Rushford he was there as a substitute parent, and that’s what he’d said to her also. Zoe knew how much he loved her dad, but she hadn’t realized just how much Nathan had come to consider her family as well. (Okay, that maybe gave her the warm fuzzies to know he wanted her too.)

Hmm, Nathan had said he was waiting to propose until her dad was less likely to panic. Maybe she could help with that, ease her dad into the idea. Suddenly, she really liked the thought of being able to have Nathan here for her like this, but as her official step-dad. Have him actually move into the bunker (instead of spending nearly every night there while supposedly maintaining his own house.) Continue their bad movie marathons, long science discussions, and even the disturbing coffeepot kisses – but as a family, together.

Yeah… she, Nathan, and SARAH were going to have a pow-wow later to plan Operation Get-Her-Dad-Over-His-Hangups-So-That-Zoe-Could-Have-An-Awesome-New-Stepdad. Her dad wouldn’t see it coming.

 

************

At 5:30pm Jack woke up in the infirmary with vague memories of Taggert holding a big-ass tranquillizer gun. Aw, hell. And he’d missed Zoe’s presentation; she was going to kill him.

While the doctor gave him a final once over before letting him leave, he noticed all of the other medical staff whispering and eyeing him sideways.

Oh no, why did he have a horrible feeling he’d missed something important while he’d been asleep?!

**Author's Note:**

> On Zoe's future in medicine vs robotics: she might still change her mind to medicine later on in this timestream, but I like the idea of her and Nathan bonding over his areas of science. Plus I figure having someone in the field showing passion for the subject and examples of really cool applications might make the topic more interesting than just being something she's good at with less effort.


End file.
